Crime and Fear in Chilean Informal Settlements

Autor/es

María Paz Trebilcock

Elizabeth Zenteno

Resumen

The expansion of informal housing in Chile has been significant, with over 120,000 families living in conditions of inadequate access to basic services by 2025. This growth has intensified existing challenges, as living in informal settlements entails structural vulnerabilities that compromise both the right to adequate housing and everyday safety. Although informal settlements are frequently framed through the lens of crime and violence, insecurity in these areas is primarily produced by structural conditions: precarious housing; insecure land tenure; peripheral urban locations with poor access to services; limited state presence; and exposure to environmental and social risks. Drawing on a comparative mixed-methods approach of two informal settlements in Chile, this article examines how residents actively produce and negotiate everyday safety. It shows that safety is shaped spatially, socially, and temporally through housing consolidation, community organization, and the gradual improvement of basic services.